State Senate meets on Medicaid expansion but doesn't vote

Jul. 3, 2013

A Michigan Senate work group is meeting Wednesday, July 3, 2013, to discuss Medicaid expansion. When the full Senate convened today, it was in a room stripped bare of furnishings because carpet is being replaced. / Kathleen Gray/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING — It was billed as a hearing to talk about the state’s proposed Medicaid expansion.

But despite a couple hundred people showing up, there was neither testimony nor a vote.

“We’ve taken a bipartisan group of people to take a look at the issue to see if there’s something that can be brought before this committee and to the full Senate for a vote,” said Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe.

A Senate work group of six Republicans and two Democrats will review the expansion bill the House passed in June and come up with a compromise to try to appease conservatives who want nothing to do with the federal Affordable Care Act.

The group will meet twice a week in private and then report its progress to the Government Operations committee, which Richardville chairs, in two weeks.

State Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, said Democrats were ready to approve the expansion Wednesday. She was hopeful that a vote would be taken up soon.

“I have a concern about the work group. There are so many people who want to be heard on this and want to weigh in and see the deliberations,” she said. “Those desires aren’t able to be addressed with private, closed meetings on this most important issue.”

When the Senate convened moments after the committee meeting, it was in a bare chamber, stripped of carpets, desks, phones and computers. The carpet in the House and Senate chambers is being replaced.

Democrats tried to force a vote on the issue, which would expand Medicaid to an additional 470,000 low-income Michiganders.

“I call on Republicans to stop their political posturing to expand Medicaid,” Whitmer said. “Senate Republicans stand alone in their ignorance and obstinance on this issue.”

But that motion to discharge the bill from committee failed on a 12-18 vote, and no vote on the expansion was taken. Richardville said he expects the committee to consider a Medicaid expansion bill later this month or in August.

Department of Community Health Director Jim Haveman said he’s optimistic that the issue can be approved by the Senate this summer.

On Tuesday, the Obama administration delayed — until 2015 — requirements for employers to provide employee insurance. Haveman called this a “blip in the road.” But state Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton, one of the most ardent opponents of the Medicaid expansion, said the delay was evidence that the Affordable Care Act is a “train wreck, and highlights that there are chinks in the armor of Obamacare.”

The Medicaid expansion, which is possible because eligibility for the health insurance is being extended to people who fall between 100% to 133% of the federal poverty level, would be paid for 100% by the federal government through 2017. The amount would decline to 90% by 2020.